The Power of the Situation

• We just learned about how social conditions affect human behavior, thoughts, and feelings

• Social influence and obedience affected how people responded to the Asch “line experiment” and the Milgram “obedience study”

• Now we will discuss *why* the situation can influence us by learning about the “Stanford Prison Experiment”

Stanford Prison Experiment:some background information

• Conducted in 1971 by Philip Zimbardo and others in the basement of the Stanford Psychology Department.

• Volunteers were randomly assigned to play the role of guards and prisoners in a mock prison in the basement.

• Both prisoners and guards rapidly adapted to their assigned roles, and lead to genuinely dangerous and psychologically damaging situations

Stanford Prison Experiment:What would you have done?

• If you were a prisoner, how would you have acted?

• If you were a guard, how would you have acted?

• After the study, how do you think the prisoners and guards felt when they saw each other in the same civilian clothes again?

Stanford Prison Experiment:Criticisms of the experiment

• Unethical

• Unscientific- No scientific controls because it was a field experiment

- Small sample size of 24, but really just 1 group so N=1

- Conclusions and observations were anecdotal

• Participants acted how they were expected to behave- Zimbardo gave guards no rules, said they could “create fear”

- Zimbardo admitted he was not a neutral observer but acted like a “superintendent” who enabled the bad behavior

Stanford Prison Experiment:A replication?

• In 2002 two psychologists from England conducted a partial replication with the assistance of the BBC who broadcast scenes from the study as a reality TV program called The Experiment.

• Their results and conclusions were very different from Zimbardo's

BBC “The Experiment

• How was it similar to Zimbardo’s study?- Randomly selected volunteers assigned to “guards” and “prisoners”

- Mock prison created in the George Lucas soundstage in London.

- End early (ended two days earlier than planned)

BBC “The Experiment”

• How did it differ from Zimbardo’s study?- Psychologists only observers, not involved

- “Guards” were given guidelines and instructions

• Very different results- Guards were not sadistic or abusive, made peace with prisoners

- Some guards were “repelled” by the situation, two left in “disgust”

• What does this imply about Zimbardo study?

• What does this imply about human nature?

Abu Ghraib prison

• What do these experiments tell us about what happened at Abu Ghraib prison?

• Did the power of the situation influence the guards?

• Were there other factors involved?

Attitudes and Persuasion

• An Attitude is a like or dislike that influences our behavior toward a person or thing.

• Persuasion refers to any attempt to change your attitudes and thus your behavior.

• People’s attitudes tend to fall along a continuum from weak (easily changed) to strong (highly resistant)

• How do you change people’s attitudes?

Attitudes and Persuasion

• A person is more likely to change YOUR attitudes when…

• Person variables:

• The message is highly important to you

• Your mood

• Situation variables:

• Perceived similarity between the speaker and you

• Perception that idea is approved or endorsed by a respected group

Attitudes and Persuasion

Heightened resistance

• What if people know they are about to hear an argument with which they will most likely disagree?

• Telling them that this is the case will increase the likelihood that they will reject the argument (the Forewarning Effect).

• Presenting a weak version of an argument and following it with a stronger version increases the chance that the strong one will be rejected also (the Inoculation Effect).

Cognitive Dissonance

• Cognitive dissonance is a psychological term which describes the uncomfortable tension that comes from holding two conflicting thoughts at the same time.

• To reduce dissonance, people modify one of the two thoughts, or invent new thoughts